Prepositions List

Prepositions List

What is a preposition?

The word “preposition” is a part of speech. It is a connector that shows a relationship between a noun, pronoun, or any other part of a sentence. My pen is on the table. There is a preposition (on) in this sentence that shows a relationship between pen and table.

List of alphabetically organized prepositions

Prepositions List A
Aboard	About	Above
Across	According to *	After
Against	Ahead of	Allowing (for) *
Aloft	Along	Alongside
Amid	Amidst	Among
Anti	Apart from	Apropos
Apropos of	Around	As
As for	As for as	Aside from
As of	As per	As regards
As to	Astride	As well as
At	Athwart	Atop
Away
Prepositions List A-E
Bar	Barring *	Because of
Before	Behind	Below
Beneath	Beside	Besides
Between	Beyond	But
But for	By	By means of
Circa	Concerning *	Considering *
Contra	Contrary to	Counting *
Despite	Down	Due to
During
Except	Except for	Excepting *
Excluding *
Prepositions List F-M
Failing *	Far from	Following *
For	From
Given *	Gone *	Granted *
In	In accordance with	In addition to
In case of	Including *	In front of
In lieu of	In place of	Inside
Inside of	In spite of	Instead of
Into	In to
Like
Minus
Prepositions List N-R
Near	Near of	Next to
Notwithstanding
Of	Off	On
On account of	On behalf of	Onto
On top of	Opposite	Out
Out of	Outside	Outside of
Over	Owing (to) *
Past	Pending	Per
Pertaining (to) *	Plus	Prior to
Rather than	Regarding *	Regardless of
Respecting *	Round
Sans	Save	Saving *
Prepositions List S-W
Since	Such as
Than	Thanks to	Through
Throughout	Till	To
Touching *	Toward	Towards
Under	Underneath	Unlike
Until	Up	Upon
Up to
Versus	Via
Wanting *	With	Within
Without	With reference to	With regard to
With respect to	Worth

The words with asterisk (*) are participle prepositions. They are participles and can be used as prepositions.

The Above Words don’t Always Act as Prepositions

Prepositions are Always in Prepositional Phrases

A preposition is always a part of a prepositional phrase. The function of a preposition is to create a relationship between words (noun, pronoun, or any other word) in a sentence. A preposition is a connector word that functions like a bridge.

•  Lisa is going to the park.

The preposition “to” is in the prepositional phrase “to the park”. It creates a relationship between the words “going” and “park”.

Preposition or Adverb

When you get confused about whether any word from the above list acts as a preposition or adverb, you should focus on just one point. The point is to check the word if it is a bridge between a noun and the rest of the sentence.

• We cycled all around.

The word “around” is an adverb because it is not in a prepositional phrase. It is also not a bridge between any words.

You can change it if you add a noun and may add any modifier, too. Check the example below.

• We cycled around the city.

In this example, the word “around” is a preposition because it is in the prepositional phrase “around the city”. Similarly, it is a bridge between the words “cycled and city”.

Preposition or Phrasal Verb

Words from the list above can be added to verbs to form phrasal verbs. In this case, we call the word a particle but not a preposition. How do we know that the word from the list is a preposition or a particle? It is quite simple. We know that a preposition is always in a prepositional phrase. A word from the above list can be only a preposition when it is in a prepositional phrase.

• When she saw me, she got out.

The word “out” is taken from the above list, but it is not a preposition. The word “out” is not in a prepositional phrase. Similarly, it is not a bridge between any two words.

Here, it is a particle of the phrasal verb “get out”. The two words in combination form a new word “get out” that gives a different meaning.

• One person peeked out the hole.

In this example, the word “out” is a preposition. It is in the prepositional phrase “out the hole”, and it is a bridge between peeked and hole.

Preposition or Conjunction

Some words from the list can act as conjunctions. It means that the words in the list are not always prepositions.

• I bought a new car for my son.
• I cannot meet him today, for it rains here.

In the first example, the word “for” is a preposition that is in the prepositional phrase. On the other hand, the word “for” in the second example is not a preposition. It is a conjunction because it joins two clauses.